"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis

Monday, February 29, 2016

BREAKING: Alan Grayson Feels The Bern

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Yesterday, on top of the NY Times front page story eviscerating Hillary's spectacularly failed neocon foreign policy agenda in Libya, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard went on Meet the Press and publicly resigned as a vice Chair of the DNC so that she could work for Bernie. (Another congresswoman, who has not endorsed either presidential candidate yet, told me Tulsi-- who isn't nearly as progressive as Bernie (she's graded an "F" by ProgressivePunch)-- made the move because "she’s just fed up with the Hillary-Debbie Wasserman Schultz Axis of Evil at the DNC." Wow! She certainly stepped all over the Clinton Machine's talking point for the day-- that Hillary had finished off Bernie in South Carolina, which is what they had all their media and social media lackies chanting starting well before sunrise. Tulsi, a kind of Fox News Democrat, was the fourth Member of Congress to endorse Bernie.This morning a fifth Member of Congress joined Team Bernie, this one a man who shares a nearly identical progressive vision of governance and public service with Bernie, Orlando Congressman Alan Grayson. Policy wise, Grayson has been allied with Bernie since long before being elected to Congress. Both are all about fearlessly taking on the special interests to make life better for ordinary working families and for peace. Grayson has also been an admirer of Clinton's. When the GOP decided to establish their transparently political Benghazi Committee, there was no one in Congress who fought it harder than Grayson, even going so far as to ask Pelosi to appoint him-- and only him-- as the sole Democrat on the committee so he could make the hyper-partisan Republican inquisitors pay dearly for their shenanigans. (Ironically, his Establishment-backed Senate opponent now, Patrick Murphy, was one of only 7 right-wing Democrats to conspire with the GOP in getting the committee going in their anti-Hillary witch hunt.)This morning Grayson explained to his supporters that he feels the Bern.

I hereby endorse Bernie Sanders to be our Democratic nominee for President of the United States. I will vote for him as a Super-delegate at the Democratic National Convention. And I enthusiastically join, shoulder to shoulder, his political revolution.Perhaps inspired by the Bernie Sanders message of "Not me. Us," for the past several days, I have appealed to Democrats across the nation to tell me for whom I should vote, as a Super-delegate at the Democratic National Convention. The response has been absolutely overwhelming. Almost 400,000 Democrats voted at GraysonPrimary.com. More than the number who voted in the South Carolina primary. More than the number who voted in the New Hampshire primary and the Nevada caucus combined.The results: Sanders 86%, Clinton 14%. More than just a landslide. An earthquake....Bernie Sanders and I share a goal of building a grassroots movement of people who want to take back our country from the billionaires and the multinational corporations. We want to make elections into about something different: Not the lesser of two evils, but the greater good.When you make a contribution to our campaign, our revolution, you are demonstrating that our democracy is no longer for sale to the highest bidder. But Bernie and I cannot accomplish this on our own. We need your help. We need to declare our Declaration of Independence from the baneful power of Big Money, by coming together one and all.

Alan: "I’ve devoted my political life to bringing the virtues of justice, equality, and peace to as many people as possible, and Bernie’s presidential campaign has drawn millions of people into a movement that’s grounded in those same shared ideals. Bernie has defied The Establishment and monied classes who control our rigged political system. That’s why millions of people see that the only way to break this oligarchy is to put Bernie Sanders in the White House. He can bring about the revolutionary change that will reverse income inequality, provide healthcare for all, open the door to debt-free college and protect our environment."

Blue America added Grayson to our Bernie Congress ActBlue page and we hope you will consider contributing to both candidates, Bernie for president, Alan for U.S. Senate. And for those who have been asking why we didn't add Tulsi Gabbard to the page... well, let me address that. The premise of the page is two-fold: everyone on it has endorsed Bernie and everyone on it is running on Bernie's issues. I'm thrilled that Tulsi has endorsed Bernie-- God bless her-- but her congressional voting record is nothing like Bernie's or Grayson's. ProgressivePunch rates her an "F," not a "C" or a "D," an "F." If she's embracing a progressive vision beyond just endorsing Bernie, we will be delighted to add her to the page. But right now, she's not someone we'll be raising money for, in the same way we're not raising money for conservative corporate Democrat Shawn O'Connor, an opportunist who was running on a Republican-lite platform of cutting Social Security before he embraced Bernie's campaign (or at least Bernie's generous grassroots New Hampshire contributors). No one like O'Connor will ever be on any Blue America pages no matter who he endorses. We'll let you know more about Tulsi as the campaign unfolds. Hating Debbie Wasserman Schultz is admirable and good... but not good enough.